BASEBALL | Beleaguered by Bears

Stepping onto the Yale diamond for their last time in their careers, the Yale baseball seniors left with one win in the four-game series.

In their last weekend of play for the 2009 season, the Bulldogs (13-24, 7-13 Ivy) lost to the Bears (22-18-1, 15-5 Ivy) in three of the four games. The team split senior day at Yale Field 3-1 and 6-2 on Saturday, and went down to the Bears’ strong offense on Sunday, falling 17-10 and 11-3.

“Obviously we didn’t go out the way we’d like today,” captain Stefan Schropp ’09 said. “They’re a very good team — a senior team with a lot of experience under their belts.”

The first senior day game opened with Brandon Josselyn ’09 on the mound. The senior went on to record six strikeouts after facing 30 batters.

Brown took an early lead with a run in the first inning. Later in the fourth, the Bears put their second run on the board. But in the bottom of the inning, Andy Megee ’11 crossed the plate off a single by Charlie Neil ’12, making the score 2-1.

Brown denied the Bulldogs any other hit in the game, and the Bears ended the game with a seventh inning run, making the score 3-1.

After a disappointing first game, Yale struck back to a 6-2 win in the second game of the doubleheader.

Yale scored their first run in the third inning as outfielder Stephen Miehls ’10 opened with a home run to right field.

In the sixth, Brown bounced back to tie the score. But Yale came on strong in the seventh with a five-run inning.

Although Brown added one more run in the eighth, they were unable to best the Bulldogs and the game ended 6-2 in Yale’s favor.

Brown powered through the second day of the series, winning the games 17-10 and 11-3.

“Our pitchers struggled to find a strike zone today,” Schropp said. “With a good hitting team like Brown, you can’t do that and come out with the win.”

Brown opened with a three runs in the first, and by the end of the third was leading 15-0.

In the fourth, the Elis managed to partially close the gap with four runs, including a home run by Trygg Larsson-Danforth ’10. The Bears added another two in the fourth and sixth, and in a valiant last-ditch effort, the Bulldogs put six runs on the board in the seventh.

Starting the second game with a three-run first inning, the team was leading 11-0 by the end of the fourth.

“The Brown offense is absolutely one of the strongest league teams,” Chris Walsh ’09 said. “The team has a number of really strong guys who are tough at the plate. They go up every single at bat and make you work for every out you can get.”

In the seventh, Yale scored its first run as Schropp tripled to center and ran home on Zach Tobolowsky’s ’12 sacrifice fly. In the eighth, Neil hit a triple to center and stole home on a wild pitch for the second Eli run of the game.

Off his last pitch in college baseball in the top of the ninth inning, Schropp hit a fly ball over the right field fence for his third home run of the season. Despite Schropp’s strong at bat, the Elis were unable to recover from their early inning deficit.